In both the readings for this week a common theme was remembering
those who had died unjustly in wars and how this continuum of remembering
should be approached. From this, two main ideas emerged, forgetting and remembering.
For some this meant upkeep of historical locations like the killing fields in
Cambodia, or this meant creating art to cope with the struggle of family trauma
and unspoken history. In the Cathy J. Schund-Vials reading there was a comment that
countries with troubled history should “dig a hole and bury the past and look ahead
to the 21st century with a clean slate” (Schund-Vials 52). Although
this idea in principle may sound good, in practice it could be detrimental with
those wronged afraid to speak about their experience with others. This culture
of silence does cause a difference in not only allowing the history to be
forgotten but also allowing others to not remember the struggles of those who
came before them. In the above article it went into recreating the layout of
the museum with words that can paint an image so that the reader has a glimpse
into the time the museum was created to document some of the atrocities committed
in Cambodia. It’s hard to clean blood stained floors to be as shiny as a clean
slate.
The next article by Viet Nguyen took a more philosophical note
by focusing on how forgiveness as a concept could work. It was noted however
that both parties needed to acknowledge the problem so that they could work
together. This was contrasted with those who tried to hide the history under the
guise of forgiveness. Although forgiveness
is the act of giving up the ability to take vengeance it was noted in a quote from
Thich Nhat Hanh that, “Every person involved in the conflict is a victim” (Nguyen
291).This puts the situation into a more nuanced position that accepts the
complications of life and the situations that we find ourselves in. Through both
it is clear that remembering, although hard, needs to be confronted so that
people can learn the full situation for a brighter future for their countries.
Although I myself am not from Vietnamese or Cambodian heritage,
I am from Taiwanese lineage which was controlled by Japan during WWII. Even
today, there are those who do not want to acknowledge what happened in Taiwan or
how it was colonized by Japan. However, people still died, the island itself was
bombed, and many of the young children from that time considered Japanese as
their main language. Like what was talked about in this chapter, I think Taiwan
and Japan should also acknowledge this portion of history and what happened
than to sweep it under the rug.
My question is: Are there other countries that you can think
of who need to confront situations that happened because of another countries
involvement?
Japanese soldiers occupying Taiwan.
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